502 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF A UNIVERSITY PENSION 



SYSTEM 



By Dr. HENRY S. PRITCHETT 



THE CARNEGIE FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF TEACHING 



WHILE a college or university can not divest itself of a humane 

 duty towards an old or worn-out teacher, it does not follow 

 that every college is under an obligation to establish at once a system 

 of retiring allowances. The obligation for a service performed is one 

 thing; the question of taking on general obligations for services to be 

 performed is quite another. It is fair, however, to say that it is the 

 clear duty of a college at our present stage of civilization to reckon 

 among its obligations those to old and worn-out servants and to deal 

 with these obligations in full view of all other duties. Hitherto colleges 

 have in the main admitted no such duty. The educational corporation 

 has generally acknowledged no obligation to the individual when his 

 services were no longer wanted. This attitude is no longer possible. 

 No corporation under our social and industrial order can brush aside 

 this humane duty. Every such organization must, as best it may, do 

 its duty both to the public and to the individual. For this reason, 

 therefore, no college is justified in turning out without some provision 

 an old and faithful teacher who has long served it. It still does not 

 follow that such an institution is in a position to establish a permanent 

 and definite system of pensions. 



The questions, what form of pension system is wise and just, and 

 what effect the establishment of a pension system will have upon the 

 professional and moral qualities of teachers, and what effect the estab- 

 lishment of such a pension system will have upon the college itself, still 

 remain to be answered. These questions are part of a much larger one 

 with which society is to-day engaged. Is it for the interest of society 

 as well as for the interest of the individual that some definite provision 

 for old age and disability be made? If so, under what conditions 

 should such pensions be conferred and from what source shall they be 

 provided? Should the beneficiary bear at least a part of the burden 

 of a pension or should it be paid by the agency, whether it be corporate 

 or governmental, which the pensioner serves ? These are questions with 

 which all modern organizations — state, business corporation or social 

 organization — are confronted. The college or university, as one of 

 these organizations, must also seek to answer these questions in its own 

 way and to the extent of its responsibility. 



The literature which has appeared in recent years concerning pen- 



